NEW YORK — Today, the Working Families Party announced Maurice Mitchell as the party’s new National Director. The announcement, which comes at a time of rapid growth for the progressive party, follows a national search that lasted almost a year. Mitchell will formally take his new position at the helm this summer.

Maurice, the son of Caribbean immigrants, brings two decades of experience in community organizing, electoral campaigns and social movements. His career has ranged from electoral campaigns in suburban communities on Long Island to serving as a national strategist for social protest movements. For the last four years, Maurice has led Blackbird, an anchor organization within the Movement for Black Lives that provides support and guidance to activists and groups around the country. A full biography of Maurice is available here.

“There has never been a greater need in my lifetime for the Working Families Party’s brand of multi-racial, inclusive populism. Americans are tired of a broken political system that has failed to tackle the serious problems people are facing, from rising inequality to structural racism and sexism to climate change,” says Mitchell. “Every year, the opportunities for the WFP get bigger and bigger as a new generation of voters and activists becomes politicized and is ready to fight for justice for all. I’m excited to have a role in building the political power we need to make the changes we need to meet the scale of the problems we face.”

Dan Cantor, the Working Families Party founder who ran the the party for its first 20 years, has moved to a new role as Chair of the Working Families Party National Committee.

“Maurice is a rare combination. He’s a visionary leader and a skilled and detail-oriented tactician. He can paint an inspiring future, and also break down the steps to get there. I couldn’t be more thrilled to have Maurice take the party to the next level,” said Dan Cantor. “WFP members are in good hands.”

The Working Families Party is growing rapidly and making some of its biggest moves yet. The WFP plans to work in more than 1000 races this year, large and small, in an effort to elect more progressive leaders and end Republican control of Congress and in state houses. WFP’s priorities include marquee candidates like Randy Bryce, the union ironworker and WFP member challenging Speaker Paul Ryan in Wisconsin, Stacey Abrams for Governor of Georgia, Chris Giunchigliani for Governor of Nevada and Ben Jealous for Governor of Maryland, as well as many more state legislative and local races around the nation. In New York, the WFP has reshaped state politics this week with the dissolution of the Republican-aligned “Independent Democratic Conference,” which collapsed under pressure from WFP-backed insurgent primary challengers.

WFP candidates have already won early 2018 primaries against machine Democrats in Chicago, as well as defeating a big-spending political establishment in Milwaukee. In 2017, the Working Families Party backed 1036 candidates across 23 states, and won in nearly 2/3rds of its races. The party was active in many of he most notable progressive victories of the year, including Larry Krasner (Philadelphia District Attorney), Chokwe Lumumba (Mayor of Jackson, MS), Randall Woodfin (Mayor of Birmingham AL), LaToya Cantrell (Mayor-elect of New Orleans, LA), Christine Pellegrino (State Assembly in New York), Crystal Murillo (City Councilor in Aurora, CO) and many others.

The Working Families Party is a grassroots progressive political organization that fights for economic, racial and social justice. WFP believes our nation must serve the many, not the few. WFP recruits, trains and elects the the next generation of progressive leaders to office — and then works with those leaders to win meaningful policy changes that make a difference in the lives of working families.